A cosplayer's diary of her cosplay antics and sets, convention adventures, reviews. Named after her original art series "No Passports!"

7/25/13

Gamer's Review - The Big Old Tree that Dreams (Bell's Heart and A Grain of Truth)

To be honest during one late night online gaming session I did not expect to find a gem of a point click game like this series, oh yes its also free. Welcome to the world of "The Big Old Tree that Dreams." You play as Myosotis, a trader of an unusual sorts who dabbles in the trading of stories and in each place she stops, the main goal is to assemble the story of the said place. In addition she is a girl looking for the story that will tell her the past that seems to elude her. Stories and dream world are heavy elements in the narrative.

In Bell's Heart we are just introduced to Myosotis and the nature of story trader life when her cart breaks down and she has to venture into town to fix it. In the meantime she learns about the tradition and story of the town. In A Grain of Truth, she is exploring a wide open plain of cloud gathers and floating stones; plus we get to learn a little more about her history. Gameplay is the basic formula of point click with elements of puzzles.

What impressed me the most about this game was the fantasy atmosphere and art style. Its hand drawn, fine point pen style filled with fantastical creatures and traditions with looks like touches of paint. It's a fantasy caravan story with the opening moments being Myosotis's caravan being pulled by a giant turtle like creature.The attention and complexity of the traditions found within this world impressed me and these traditions play a big part in the story narrative of each place visited....not going to go into depth and give away the spoiler. Like Myosotis, you are only the observer of the narrative being gathered and stitched together. It seems that you always maintaining emotional distance akin to the serious focus/distance Myosotis always maintains when interacting with people.

I would highly suggest a play through of this series...did I mention its online and free to play?

2 comments:

Thank you for the great review. We are proud that you found time to share with your feelings on this blog. But most of all we are happy you like it and you spent some nice night playing and discovering the world behind.

here you can find a little more about the projectshttp://traderofstories.blogspot.com